


Spin the Bottle

by Icephoinex



Series: One Shots [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Scars, Spin the Bottle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:55:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21534796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icephoinex/pseuds/Icephoinex
Summary: Max and El spin the bottle to choose who El will spy on. What if they had landed on Steve instead of Billy? What might they have seen?
Series: One Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552003
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	Spin the Bottle

The first spin landed on Mr Wheeler. The girls exchanged a glance “Boring” declared Max.

El chucked along quietly. “Yeah, boring.”

“Spin again.”

El looked up hesitantly “against the rules?”

“We make our own rules” Max declared confidently. El, loving this answer, smiled and spun again.

This time it stopped on Steve. Both Max and El froze.

It somehow didn’t seem right to spy on the teen after what he had done for the kids the previous November. He had saved Lucas, Max and Mike and Dustin at cost to himself. Mike had been honest with El that they had been stupid and had been spotted peeping out of the window.

But they had started this game and it wouldn’t feel right to duck out of everyone they landed on. “OK fine, but he is a teenage boy, if he is doing anything… weird then just stop okay?

El reassured her with a grin and Max handed her the blindfold.

Preparations complete, El began to dive into the blackness, searching for the spiked baseball bat wielder.

El didn’t know Steve very well, she was aware that he was involved in the fight with the Demogorgon nearly two years prior, but they hadn’t crossed paths. During the mess eight months ago, she knew he had stepped up and became friends with Dustin and by extension Mike and the others. She concentrated on her first memory of him, the Byers house, standing protectively in front of Mike and the others with bat raised and entered the void looking for him.

Blackness surrounded her.

The water covering the floor made her footsteps audible in the otherwise silent space.

His back was to her as she approached and he was bent over a sink, hands braced on either side. He was still in the sailors uniform she had seen him in earlier that day. Walking to the side of him see could see him staring ahead, unseeing with tears in his eyes. Walking in front, she could see a red mark on one of his cheeks. He slowly raised his hand and touched it gently, wincing at the contact. As his eye shut on reflex a single tear escaped down his cheek.

“Bastard,” he hissed.

El flinched at the venom in his voice. She hadn’t heard him speak that way before. He was so gently with Dustin and the other guys. He rarely raised his voice at them in anger despite all the stupid stuff they had done.

“Fucking asshole.” A hand slammed down on the sink and El jumped. She can hear Max asking her questions in the distance, but she ignores her.

He pulled off the top of his sailor uniform and El nearly pulled away, scared of seeing too much but she stopped when she saw the bruises.

They were in various stages of healing and were splattered across his chest and ribs. He lets out a sigh as he turned on a tap and ran water other his hands before splashing his face. He does this twice more; his fringe gets soaked and starts to sag out of its normally perfect style. He grabbed something from nearby and uses it to wipe his face. El starts to back away but stops as she sees Steve’s face change. Scars started to spear, as if he were removing a layer of skin to show the damage underneath.

Some of the marks she could link to the wounds she remembered seeing on his face the previous November. The line marring the otherwise smooth skin across his once broken nose, the scar across his temple where Mike had told her he had been hit with a plate. It didn’t explain the new ones though. Bruises appeared on his cheeks, highlighted by the redness on one side. He avoided looking up again during this cleansing, almost as if he didn’t want to see himself like that.

El knew she was intruding on something very private.

She pulled away and emerged from the void, blinking at the change in brightness as she removed the blindfold and absentmindedly wiped the blood from her nose.

“Well? Max asked, eager for gossip.

El smiled but remained silent, she wouldn’t lie to Max because friends didn’t lie but neither would she reveal what she had seen.

She reached over and spun the bottle again without offering any explanation

It landed on Billy.

As Max was mumbling something not looking too closely if Billy was with a girl and El smiled as she reset the blindfold.

She might ask Hop about it at some point but otherwise she knew that this was something she would keep from her new friend, but maybe she would give Steve a big smile next time she saw him.

Everyone had scars to hide after all.

**Author's Note:**

> When re-watching the scene I noticed there were quite a few names in the list.   
> I have read a few ST fics and agree with the idea that Steve's parents probably aren't very good people. This popped into my head shortly after.


End file.
